Disability and Access Continuum

Building a Disability Politic and Access-Centered Cultures Series: This series is for organizations or groups interested in applying a disability justice framework to your existing work. It consists of two parts:

• Part 1: Workshops
• Part 2: Strategy Clinic and Coaching

Using a popular education methodology, we'll begin from where your organization is currently at, and build on existing knowledge and practices. Developing a politic around disability will support efforts to increase access for everyone, particularly disabled people. It is possible to complete only Part 1, but we recommend completing both to have support in developing and implementing commitments.

Overall outcomes:

• Identify distinctions between disability rights and disability justice as it relates to your organization's work and implementing access.
• Link your organization’s work to the framework of disability justice. Identify alignment and gaps.
• Develop a critical perspective about the dominant views of disability, and practice challenging them to transform these perceptions within your organization and communities.
• Leave with disability justice practices you've developed and can implement within your organizations, to create sustainable support structures.

Part 1

Workshop 1: Building a Disability Politic

This workshop links the ways disability is connected to the systems of oppression that your organization is already addressing in your work, aiming to deepen its understanding of disability in relation to capitalism, imperialism, and other dominant systems. Through scenario-based exercises, we'll identify how ableist views of disability shape situations and find ways to challenge them. We'll examine historical organizing examples through a disability justice lens, to build an understanding of how you can apply the framework to your work.

Workshop 2: Building Access-Centered Cultures

Building on the first workshop, we'll focus on the distinctions between disability rights and disability justice as it relates to accessibility and access. This is not an accessibility training. Our goal is to co-develop a shared understanding of the culture and analysis necessary to implement collective access, as opposed to individual accommodations. We'll use scenarios based on information we have about your group and real-life situations, to practice applying a disability justice framework.

Part 2

Strategy Clinic

After the workshops are completed and feedback is submitted, facilitators will guide you through determining opportunities and commitments you want to make, based on your learning and resources. The clinic is designed to develop or realign your overall working goals. We'll use these goals to support you in planning how this work can move forward for your group, and detail what each coaching session will consist of.

The strategy clinic is for the people who have the power to decide and/or the people who will implement the commitments.

Coaching: 4 check-ins

Coaching sessions are to follow-up and support you with what is working well and to facilitate the continuous implementation of new commitments. Our role is to provide guidance and resources to identify any additional needs, not as consultants but as collaborative partners. Coaching sessions will center on the specific areas you identify as needing support in order to make progress.